So last weekend’s track event ended a little abruptly and a little firey…. My car just wishes it was as cool as nathan's I guess and was trying to emulate it… I am thankful that it was at low speed and there was no impact. Video: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIHZA_bBu1c]Wheel Fail - YouTube[/ame] So as you might guess I am in the market for some new track wheels for the mini… Wheel wise the research I did came to the conclusion that for non-forged wheels enkeis are one of the best… so I am considering another set of the same (had 15x8 pf-01s that were about a year old) CCW have a number of forged wheels in 15x8 (LM5, LM20, classic4, classic5) with custom offsets but I am not sure if the price difference 210/wheel -> 450/wheel is worth it and if they would clear the brakes even with the spacers. The top end looks like Volk TE37s for 530/wheel. Given my experience, I will be shortening the duration for which I use a set unless I make the leap to forged so I did the math: a set of volks = 2.5 sets of enkei a set of ccws = 2.0 sets of enkei It is a pretty intimidating bill, especially as it looks like I will have to spend ~3k on the other bits that broke as a result, but I did not enjoy the ride and it could have been much worse which has me thinking I should just work more hours and get higher end wheels, but then I think of the hundreds of folks running non-forged wheels and not dying which makes me question if it really is money well spent... Any thoughts? P.S. I will now be wearing my full firesuit etc even at hpdes not just w2w events, even though it isn’t required. Luckily, the fire was not that big and I was near a corner worker who put it out which might not always be the case…
Great job keeping it off the wall. My front right broke too. I wonder if there is something about pushing the car harder in a left turn then a right knowing that there is a lot more car between you and a wall then there is on a right turn. I moved to an Enkei RS+M after my wheel center snapping fun. No problems ever since. Not that I get to the track like I used to these days.
If it was me I would not put a set of the same wheels back on the car. Call the folks you bought the wheels from, they may want that wheel back to inspect it for a manufacturing defect. How many track events on those wheels & how often do you inspect your wheels? I mean pull them off & really have a close look at them? Might be a good practice to start if you don't already. Broken wheels are not all that common, but can happen. Count yourself lucky that you didn't roll your car or hit one of those concrete barriers. As far as wearing a fire suite goes if it makes you feel better go for it. I think it's overkill for an HPDE, but that is just me. I'm sure glad you escaped unharmed other than in your pocket. You handled the event in a calm manner.
Like Crashton said : " You handled the event in a calm manner." If it was me the video would end with me screaming and cursing banging my head on the steering wheel...then running out grabbing the broken wheel and screaming at the wheel......You handled it much better...Good Job...
Sorry to see that! I agree - don't give more money to the folks that built that wheel. When I cracked my TD1, I replaced the set with Braid tarmac spec rally wheels. I was told the suspension would fail before the wheel did - exactly what I wanted to hear then.
I know that I push extra hard in that turn because of the good stability of the mini. The rwd guys have to wait to get on the gas so they don’t pop a drive wheel out of the banking so I use it to catch back up. I know limiting myself to 15x8 reduces my selection but it is hard to make the leap when the car feels so great on 225/45/15s I am going to reach out to Enkei as the wheels only had ~25 days on them with ~2 hours a day which is not excessive and I think my surprise at a failure is valid. I do take them off after every individual day and clean them inside and out after every event which is 2-3 days. One of the reasons I don’t wear my firesuit in HPDE was because I didn’t want to look like a dbag but that seems like a silly reason to not use the full extent of my safety equipment. The other being I don’t push quite as hard in the mini because it doesn’t have a cage etc. But with leaking fuel who knows what could have happened; personally I will not make that call again, but I won’t force my thoughts onto others. As far as the calmness, I think that came from shock more than anything else. I was not expecting that at all, and it took a while for what happened to sink in. Bizarrely enough I actually joking suggested to a buddy I should get rally wheels next… maybe I should take a closer look…. Are you using something like the WINRACE TA in 15x8 Et30? I am running Todd’s plus1 with the extra wide rotors so fitting the 15s is a little tougher than normal
I would think Enkei would like to inspect that wheel. Hopefully they will replace it so you have a set to sell off to offset the cost of a new set of wheels. I meant your calmness as a compliment. There are those that would have shirt their pants in that situation. When I saw the smoke in your video I was yelling get outta the car! Might be time to put a reachable fire extinguisher in your MINI.
Yeah I think this winter's projects are going to be all safety related... car is plenty fast enough to be fun
Damn I hate it when my wheel passes me on the track!! Good job keeping the car away from the wall, good job keeping your cool and staying in the car (at least until traffic slowed), and good for your turnworker fro bringing the bottle with him (they get excited when a problem occurs and do all kinds of goofy stuff unless they've been at it for a while or have a really screwed on head). Wear your fire suit if you want. I was with one of my instructors doing our annual check in his F-40 about 15 years ago. After our checkout session, I asked for a couple of laps at his usual pace to see what how he would normally drive the car (I worried that some instructors would scare a student, and if I thought that might be the case after the "fast ride". I would gently remind them that we were all new once, and we wanted folk to come back...). Anyway, something broke in the Ferrari and we hit the wall backwards. Twice. The first time I broke out the window with my helmet, and the second time the car stopped with my door against the wall. We were on fire and flaming fuel was splashing in on me thru the broken window. I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. Fortunately, the driver, who initially appeared to be unconscious, was gone by the time I figured I had better get out of the car, Not easy for a 6'1" 230 lb body to get over that freaking console and out of the car, especially with the drivers helmet jamming my legs against the fire bottle installed in front of my seat. I think the speedshops in our area had record sales for suits that year, including one for me. Before that accident, I thought I was pretty much bulletproof. Which I think I still am, but I can tell you - I am NOT flameproof. Wear the suit. Pat
949 UL makes a 15x8 at a good price, specifically for the Miata spec crowd, but it works nicely on MINIs too. They also make 15x9, I have those up front and 15x8 on the rears. Yet to hear of one failing.
That is good to know about the 15x9 fitting. Lot of my miata buddies run the same tire (225/45/15) but on 15x9 instead of 15x8. I was going to try a test fit first as the 15x8 are pushing it fitment wise. Is there a specific reason you aren't running 15x9 square? Looks like most places are sold out right now, but I am not in a rush.
You don't need 15x9's on the rear, it's dead weight, and the car feels just right with that stagger--the car has so much grip it's crazy. I have not come close to losing the end of the car. Many people have gone this route, and it's the fastest setup for everyone who's tried it so far. I run a 15 mm spacer up front (I am running a 12.18 diameter rotor, the largest you can fit under a 15" wheel, brakeman brakes), 8mm in the rear, and everything clears.
Sweet! If they fit over your brakes, they should fit over mine as well, Todd's 11.75x1 kit. I already have 90mm studs and 20mmF 5mmR spacers due to the stepped barrel on the 15x8 setup. Once the car is drive-able I will setup a test fitement with a local guy running 15x9s on his miata.
Good to know I am not over reacting, my thoughts are even if I am not pushing the car 10/10ths stuff can still break!!! And it turns out the grass fire melted the fuel lines instead of the fuel lines being cut by scrapping along the ground so slightly less close of a call I guess. Doesn't really change the lessons learnt though.
I have found a few threads on other sites with discussion on various 15x8/9 wheels, been reading through a number of those. Still nothing from enkei but tire rack have actually replied asking for a few more details so might get something via that route. Not holding my breath though as from what I have seen searching enkei has given nothing to folks even just doing autoX and hasn't even wanted the wheel for analysis which is weird. Subaru Impreza WRX STI Forums: IWSTI.com - View Single Post - GR Hatch: severe STI - Thank You EFI Logics & Mike I still feel a little scared of cast wheels on track though, justified or not. I haven't seen reports of 3rd gen 6UL failing like the older ones, on the older ones failure appear more common on fwd rather than rwds... Maybe I should cancel x-mas/vacations etc bite the bullet and go for overkill of volk te37 I was going to raise some funds by selling my mini’s street setup but right now they are the only thing keeping it off blocks… so I have to get another set before I can do that. Also I will be switching the wagon to its winters next weekend and am going to downgrade to a cheaper summer setup, won’t be as dope or whatever the kids say now, but will let me move some money from the street car to the track car which seems to make sense. I suppose the good news is that given there aren’t any track events till next year I have a few months more to debate this/find things to sell on cl. I did go to the track with my street setup (16x7 bbs rf with 205 Z1 star specs) and the car actually rotated better so I know i need to update my settings to keep that "easy to drive" ability when i am back on the nittos. I did have to leave a day early as I started getting a miss-fire in cylinder 2 when the car got hot... probably the coil pack which in hindsight i should have done with the plugs and wires, got an oem one on the way.
+1 on the 15x9's up front. They fit on my setup (stock brakes) with only a 1/4" spacer. They work great with a 225/45/15 and actually work pretty well even with a 275/35/15 Hoosier. The GenII and GenIII wheels from 949 are pretty strong, better than the original GenI wheels. I did crack a set of the GenI wheels, was fortunate enough to catch it during my normal inspection as I was well on my way to having a failure just like in the video above. Jason
The problem is you have way to much grip. Smaller slippery tires let the MINI slide around giving you big grins, plus it puts less load on parts. Slower yes, but still a hoot.